Tag Archives: prawns

Post navigation

I’ve been away on holiday for a while, so haven’t had the chance to post the latest blog, but here it is at last….my yuzu and prawn salad. With the temperature reaching the high-teens in the UK this weekend, it’s got me thinking about light and fresh summer food. I hope this dish is just that…it’s very low calories, low-fat but high in flavour and colour. This is a dish for one, but is easily multiplied up if you need to make it for two people.

Some of you may be wondering what a ‘yuzu’ is? Well, it’s a fruit used in east Asia that has a strong citrus flavour that is somewhere between a grapefruit and a lemon. I’ve used it in this dish as it’s a very fresh flavour and compliments the prawns.

I have used Cos (or Romaine) lettuce in this recipe as it is crunchy and will hold its shape under the prawns. You may of course use a softer leaf, but at your own peril.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

180g king prawns – uncooked, frozen or thawed;

1 thumb sized piece of ginger – peeled and finely diced;

1 tsp soy sauce;

1 tbsp yuzu juice (or yuzu seasoning);

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil;

2 spring onions;

zest of ½ lemon;

squirt of lemon juice;

zest of 1 lime;

½ Cos (Romaine) lettuce – torn into small pieces;

½ ripe mango – diced into 1cm pieces;

Pinch of salt.

Recipe:

In a small bowl, make the yuzu dressing by adding the yuzu juice, olive oil, salt, lemon zest and juice and spring onions – finely chopped and give a little stir then set aside.

Put a dribble of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat and tip in the prawns. Prawns can be cooked from thawed or frozen, but will just take a couple more minutes if being cooked from frozen. Stir round and as soon as the prawns begin to change from a dull grey to their coral pink colour, add the ginger and lime zest. Keep moving round the pan until the prawns are completely pink and then tip in the soy sauce.

On a large plate (or shallow bowl depending on how much of a messy eater you are – bowl in my case), pile up the lettuce and mango pieces. Then tip over the cooked prawns and drizzle over the yuzu seasoning.

Serve immediately, as although the Cos lettuce is crunchy, it will become soggy if left in the dressing.

Before I even start this blog entry, I’m going to apologise to any Spanish people reading this. This recipe is not a traditional paella and even more heinous is the fact it contains…chorizo – one of my favourite foods – but something that no Spanish person would ever consider adding to a traditional paella! So please excuse a Brit for combining some of has favourite Spanish flavours into one dish. The recipe title may be better described as a spanish inspired surf-and-turf risotto….but then I probably risk insulting the Italian’s risotto, so let’s just crack on.

The recipe here serves two greedy portions, and could easily feed three with a few accompaniments (ciabatta with balsamic and extra virgin olive oil, a few designer rocket leaves etc.)

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

100g chorizo cut into chunks – not finely sliced

180g paella rice (Arborio rice – the one used in risottos will also work if you can’t get paella rice)

4 rashers of streaky bacon – cut into small pieces

10 king prawns

1 onion – finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped

800ml chicken stock

1 pinch of saffron

1 tsp smoked paprika

200g frozen peas

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Recipe:

Cut the chicken breasts up into small pieces and fry in a little olive oil over a medium heat until cooked and starting to get a golden touch.

Take the chicken out the frying pan and set aside. Then add the onion, garlic, chorizo and bacon and fry until the onions have softened. You will not need to add any oil, as the chorizo will start to ooze its oils after a couple of minutes and the bacon has more than enough fat in it. You may need to turn the heat down after a couple of minutes so the chorizo doesn’t crisp too much but the onion is just cooked enough and has absorbed some of those vibrant, orange colours and flavours.

Whilst the onions and pork is cooking, add the saffron to the chicken stock and allow to infuse for a few moments, before adding 3/4 of the liquid to another large shallow pan with paella rice and smoked paprika. It should take about 20 minutes to cook over a low-medium heat.

With 10 minutes left to go, most of the liquid should have been absorbed and the paella rice should be soft with a golden yellow colour. Add the remaining stock with the prawns and frozen peas. Turn up to a medium heat.

In the final 5 minutes, stir in the cooked chicken, chorizo, bacon, onion and garlic and wait for the last of the stock to be incorporated, then it’s ready to serve!

Like this:

So firstly apologies as this was meant to be halibut based recipe rather than a haddock one, but I couldn’t get hold of any in time for this blog, so I had to make do with my local supermarket offering of haddock. Either fish will work!

The tomato sauce can be prepared up to a day in advance and stored in a sealed container in the fridge. It just needs reheating when you’re cooking the fish.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

325g Haddock (or halibut) – skinless, boneless and cut into pieces

150g Shrimps or prawns (cooked)

175g Scallops

1 lemon

500g fresh linguine

15 ripe tomatoes (feel free to use a mixture of varieties, which will enhance the flavour)

1 tbsp Tomato purée

1 tbsp chopped basil

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Handful of freshly chopped parsley

Handful of freshly grated Parmesan

Recipe:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with tin foil. Cut the tomatoes in half and place on the tray. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and put in the oven to roast for 30-40minutes.

Spoon the roasted tomatoes (and all the juices that will have leaked out) into a food blender with the tomato purée, basil and blitz until it has turned into a paste (but still with a few bits – you don’t want to make soup!)

Put the linguine in a large pan of boiling salted water and leave to bubble away.

Meanwhile chop the halibut (or haddock) into pieces and fry for 3-4 minutes in a drizzle of olive oil. Then add the scallops and shrimps (or prawns) with the juice of half of the lemon and continue to fry for another couple of minutes until the fish is cooked. This will not take long and you don’t want to overlook the fish.

By this point both fish and pasta should be cooked, so drain the pasta (reserving about a cupful of the pasta water in the large pan with the pasta). Add the fish, tomato sauce, and 2/3 of the chopped parsley then gently combine until everything is well coated in the tomato sauce.

Top each serving with the remaining chopping parsley, Parmesan and a wedge of lemon.